Hospitable Environs
by Wicked R
Summary: Why are the sisters so sure at the end of Centennial Charmed that they have vanquished Cole for good?
1. Chapter 1

Title: Hospitable Environs  
Author: Wicked dR

Disclaimer: WB is the God, not me. I'm writing this for my own pleasure.

Rating/Genre: G/Romance. h/c.

Summary/Set: Why are the sisters so sure at the end of "Centennial Charmed" that they have vanquished Cole for good? Another piece from everybody's favourite thousand and one ways of getting Phoebe and Cole back together series.

When Piper called her down for breakfast, Phoebe was still feeling perturbed about the nightmares she had last night. She didn't bother with putting on her going out clothes, and went downstairs to let her sisters know of what had occurred as soon as possible.

"You know you don't have to always cook breakfast for us," Paige reasoned with her older sister, "especially now that you are that far advanced pregnant."

"Especially that I am that far advanced, I have to, I'm so hungry and to wait around for you guys to make something..."

"Oh, honey, but I offered to cook," Leo reminded her, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Yeah, and you would have to heal us right away after we eat," Piper put a hand on his shoulder playfully, "don't worry people, I'm okay and I like cooking. Banana pancakes?" She offered the plate.

"I guess I am gonna eat breakfast first after all," Phoebe grabbed for it, not being able to resist such temptation.

"First and then what?" Paige caught on.

Phoebe made a face, "finicky, the trick you pulled with Cole, but I don't think we're quite there where we want to be in spite of that."

"Phoebe, the Elders confirmed the lack of any evil power surges, and that means he is really gone," Leo held.

"You know how he kept contacting me from the Wasteland the last time?"

"He contacted you again?" Piper asked.

"No, but I couldn't have much rest last night. I guess I was all stressed out about him for a while now, but all those nightmares made me think and I realised there are no guarantees he's not going to come back again."

"There's really no winning with you is there?" Paige sighed.

"I just want to make sure he stays where he belongs," Phoebe continued, "cause no matter what else he is, demon, invincible, the Source, some part of him will always remain human and that means he has a soul. And if so, his soul will be alive and well in the Wasteland, waiting to gather enough powers to come back. I have no intensions of simply waiting around until he does."

"What do you want us to do?" Paige volunteered.

"Say the reversal spell when you think there's an emergency to bring me back from the wasteland. Otherwise, leave it up to me, I know the reversal spell by heart."

"What you think you are going to accomplish with going to see him?" Her younger sister enquired further.

"Nothing, other than finding him and reciting a spell to make him move onto the next plane from where there's no coming back. And I'm going to do that right after breakfast and before work. It won't take long and then we can all go on with what fate brings us today. Other than Cole."

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Phoebe warily eyed her surroundings looking out for the snake creature, and quickly climbed a smaller rock just in case. On top, she could also see fire burning in the distance, jagged rocks everywhere. There was dark on the other side and loud creepy noises hit her ears. As she looked over the edge, she spotted the thick, scaly body of the beast, but it wasn't moving. It lay in a large pool of blood that Phoebe was sure her feet would get wet if she went close. At the edge of the pool lay Cole, similarly motionless. Phoebe moved guardedly towards him, awaiting the attack of the other beasts she heard in the background. Cole didn't seem to give any sign of life, but then again, you don't normally expect that from a dead person. Phoebe couldn't tell if any of the blood he was lying in was his, or where his injuries were, but that didn't matter. him being unconscious made it easier for her to say her spell. She knelt down and put her hand over his, that was lying loosely by his side. As she touched him, she allowed her feelings from how she felt towards him just a year ago come to the surface for a little while, "you'll always be the one," she sighed, and nodded to herself, starting her spell, "magic forces far and wide,

send this..."

"What's happening?" Cole's voice startled her as he stirred and she let him go.

Cole opened and closed his eyes several times until he could blink away the darkness that was caused by his blood loss. Finally, his eyes wandered around to the right spot and found her, "Phoebe..." he whispered.

The addressed shivered at the sound of his voice saying her name weakly, and as he moved around, she could see the deep cuts in his shoulder and thigh now.

"I'm here to..." How was she going to explain this? Having had no better ideas, she carried on with the spell once more, hoping he will not come to his senses more until she was finished and than it would be too late, "magic forces far and..."

However, well skilled in magical affairs, Cole understood, "get away from me! How many times are you intending to kill me?" He got to his feet.

"I have to if you don't have the habit of dying easily," she replied coolly, trying to alienate herself from the situation.

"That's not exactly right," he grated with his injured arm sagging lifelessly, and he tried to hold it with his other hand while trying to make a step towards her. That unbalanced him and he staggered, and Phoebe found herself withstanding the urge to catch him. Providentially, there was no need as he caught himself, cackled resentfully, struggling to remain standing, his leg throbbing in objection, "you killed me and it did, it does hurt, in more ways that one," his throat took on a life of its own and malformed the guffaw into coughs and he shrunk to the ground once more, with his injuries bleeding more rapidly now from the effort. To his astonishment he found himself in Phoebe's arms and gentle fingers contacted with his cheek.

Phoebe was troubled, she had no idea of what to make of her own reaction to his suffering, other than she felt a impulse to help him. She found herself holding him close, "Cole, why can't you make it easy? What if I'm here to help you cross over to the next dimension and you would forget about me, your misery and everything else?"

"If you would've helped me in the first place when I asked you right here six month ago, I would've called that comfort, but not this. I could've went back, without any powers, human. But no, you left me no choice but gather up evil powers..."

A chilling howl interrupted them, coming closer and they could see a beast approaching with gigantic leaps, so uncharacteristically of a snake like creature. Ten seconds and they would both be gone. Cole was in no condition to fight. Maybe that was what fate and magic had in store for them? But then, she had always believed that magic was for a reason. She had a millisecond to make a decision and she based it on that view and her prophetic gut instinct, "return with my lost love, wherever we are,

through time and space, bring us back to our place," she recited an altered reverse spell to meet the astonished faces in the attic of the manor.

"Phoebe!" Piper opposed with a freakish voice.

"You can't be serious!" Paige glared.

"Heal him, Leo!" Phoebe directed, "he is human now cause I brought him back myself."

"And?" Paige revolted, "is that an excuse? After what he put us through? After what he put me through?" She towered over his limp form while Leo squeezed past her.

"Paige, he is human and we don't hurt humans," Piper rolled her eyes by the turn of events, "that was a different Cole. Till there's humanity, there's hope. So what do you intend to do with him now Phoebe?"

"Teach him humanity how we know it. The way we should have in the first place."

The End.


	2. Chinwag

Chapter 2: Chinwag

Phoebe stood at the door of their guest room, where they have temporarily placed Cole, away from all the temptations of his previous life, but giving him the idea that he was separate from her. She couldn't postpone the moment any longer. While her sisters were still arguing about his existence, she had too feel him out, make sure he wasn't going round the bed again cause as such, she was the one responsible for his way of life, because she brought him back. Taking a deep breath, she knocked softly. Just barging in would've either meant she didn't trust him, which she tried to avoid making him feel at this time, or it would've given a wrong idea of intimacy between them. But as there was no answer, she stuck her head in the room.

Cole turned his head at the noise and smiled faintly at her, "hello."

She studied him for a minute, "are you all right?"

"Yes," he untangled himself, realising her question indicated him lying in the foetal position on the bed, "why? Why did you get me back? Not that I'm not grateful or anything, but it's really confusing being back and forth from the dead by the same hands."

"Demons are not supposed to love. And even though I killed you, there was only concern about me in your eyes when you saw the beast coming...but that's enough about that. How about we start a new sheet? Do you know what you want to do now?"

"Staying with you is out of the question, right?"

"I brought you back so you can have a real chance to prove yourself, the right way. And that is regardless of me. Me? I don't know. Let's forget about me. You. We have to make sure you don't get into the same pitfalls."

"But I never really screwed up, Phoebe. I was under the spell of evil! You don't really have a choice as a demon. It is your nature. There are certain things you can keep yourself from doing, when given a good reason, but essentially the demon reigns. Besides, evil's existence serves the perfection of the whole, the universe would be less perfect if it contained no evil. Thus fire could not exist without the corruption of what it consumes; the lion must kill in order to live, and if there were no wrong doing, there would be no sphere for patience and justice. White magic has no uses without black magic."

"You really believe that? Because if you do..."

"Yes…I mean still, I understand I will get to hell sooner or later, but I don't understand why I should be punished for things I didn't really do. By you out of all people. I would've never done anything close to obnoxious if I could stay human. I took in the Hollow to save you…speaking of you...how can I forget about you when I saw you agitatedly ask for Leo to heal me when I was hurt. Or did I hallucinate?"

"Yeea..ps," Phoebe didn't elaborate any further. She scanned his ex's body instead, soaking in every curvature for the last time, before she told him Darryl had found a job for him in Los Angeles and he will have to go. There wasn't all that much skin exposed, but there didn't have to be. She was familiar with every inch of him by heart, burned into her memory the first night they spent together at his old district attorney flat. She licked her lips involuntarily, her eyes making their way up to Cole's face, only to meet piercing blue eyes staring into hers, seemingly surprised and hopeless at the same time. Phoebe looked down, embarrassed. Now he didn't only put coal on Cole fire, he made it explode.

Cole raised his chin, looking at his ex disdainfully. This amount of caring coming from the towards him was unreal and it made him suspicious. He blinked a few times. It was all too intimate, "you care? A-about me?"

"Yes," Phoebe admitted, "but I don't want complications. I need you to go take this job in LA..."

Cole closed his eyes, and nodded permissively, but left his head hanging, "Phoebe?"

"Mmm?" said Phoebe.

"Why are you doing this?"

Phoebe's movements froze for a second, "I'm sorry, Cole, I didn't mean it the way...I can't explain it all that well..."

"Yes, you can. Don't lie to me. You told me when we last met in this reality. You feel nothing for me."

"That's not true, I didn't mean that, I was scared of what you were capable of and angry because I felt you cheated on me with that shapeshifter. I didn't loose my memories just because I never talk about old times, now did I? We used to have magnificent times. All we had to do is think about how the other one touches and we made love. Just mentally, or physically, it was almost the same. And now you did think about the exact same thing I did," Phoebe whispered, and leaned down to him on the bed, brushing their lips together.

Cole froze, dazed, unsure and a little aroused. Phoebe was kissing him for the first time since that last kiss just before they vanquished him as the source. Phoebe was touching his face and kissing him. This was a dream, he was going to wake up any minute now, alone in bed, his arms still sore and itchy. He felt those much-loved hands reach down to touch his upper body, and he even trembled a bit when those hands drifted down, brushing gently against his smooth skin.

"Cole?" Phoebe whispered waiting for him to react in some way.

He pulled the love of his life into his strong arm, "whatever you wish, Phoebe," Cole's voice sounded honest.

"I do really need you to go," she said, still hugging him, "we bought you the ticket."

"Can I go in hope?"

"I don't know...maybe," she entangled herself and deposited the bus ticket into his pocket, "it's for tonight," she left him, not looking back.

But Cole could still see her tears. He sighed and looked at his ticket. It was a return.

The End.


End file.
